What's This?
by Rosie Denn
Summary: Axel introduces Roxas to snow at Christmas Town. A KH Secret Santa '15 gift for @roxas-sama.


**This is a Kingdom Hearts Secret Santa gift for roxas-sama. Happy holidays, and happy reading~!**

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"So, what do you think?"

Roxas looked around the hill on which he and Axel stood. The ground here was weird. It wasn't stone or grass like the other worlds they had been to. It was more like the sand of that one desert world. Wherever Roxas stood, his boots sank into the stuff, and it made soft crunching sounds. It was denser than sand, and very white. All around Roxas, the ground, hills, even the tops of things like the big tree behind him were white. How had this stuff gotten everywhere?

They had already finished their mission for the day, but, instead of their usual trip to the clock tower for ice cream, Axel had guided Roxas to this new world, where he'd been on a solo reconnaissance mission the day before. He had said he wanted to show Roxas something. Before arriving, Axel had handed Roxas a large red strip of fabric he'd said was a "scarf" and showed Roxas how to wrap it around his neck. Roxas was glad for the scarf, since this world was quite cold. Axel wore a yellow one, and Roxas thought it looked good with his bright hair.

Curious about the white stuff, Roxas asked, "What is it?"

"It's snow," said Axel. The redhead grinned. Roxas would say he looked excited if Nobodies could feel that emotion. There was obviously something to this "snow" stuff that Roxas wasn't getting. Axel walked through the snow, crunching as he went. "I admit, it's not my favorite thing, too cold for my taste, but it's been a while since I've seen snow. I'd almost forgotten about it."

"What does it do?"

"What does _snow_ do?" Axel looked at Roxas. He seemed on the verge of laughter. Roxas didn't know about what; his question seemed perfectly reasonable. "It's more like what do _you_ do with snow, Rox."

"Well, then, what do you do with it?"

Axel chuckled softly. "Come on, I'll show you." He began walking away from the hilltop, down the path leading to the little town below. Roxas followed him.

After a very short distance, Axel abruptly called up one of his chakrams, and blasted it through the snow piled on the left side of the path. The heat of his fire attack made the snow melt instantly on contact. Roxas jumped backwards in surprise, shouting, "What did you do that for?"

Axel called back his chakram and dismissed it. "It'll be better if we go where we're less likely to run into anybody." Then, Axel began walking through the path he'd made. Right, Roxas thought, because no one will notice the still steaming path broken off from the main one. Annoyed at not being warned of Axel's actions, Roxas followed him once again.

Axel had carved an impressively long path, and they continued on for longer than they had gone down the original one. Apparently, Axel had sent his chakram on a curved trajectory, since the path began to bend toward the left. He was a bit ahead of Roxas, so, momentarily, Roxas lost sight of him. Roxas was looking over the surrounding hills when he was hit full in the face by something cold that exploded on impact. Stumbling, Roxas called up his keyblade in one hand, while reaching up with the other to check his face for damage. He felt some of the particles still clinging to his cheek and grabbed some to bring out where he could analyze them. Looking at his glove, he saw that he had been hit by a flying projectile of the snow. Roxas was still on his guard, wondering if the snow had attacked him on its own, or if there was some other enemy nearby that had used it as a weapon. Then, he heard raucous laughter coming from up ahead. He warily jogged forward a few steps to find Axel clutching his stomach, laughing like mad. Roxas noticed the snow particles on his hands, too, but nowhere else.

Having found the culprit, Roxas gripped his keyblade tighter and shouted at Axel, "Why did you do that?"

Amongst continued laughter, Axel replied, "It's a snowball fight, Roxas. And, boy, did I get you good!"

Glaring at his partner, Roxas said, "Why are you picking a fight with me?"

"Calm down, Roxas! It's a game. People make hand-sized balls out of snow and then try to hit the other person with them. Or persons. It's actually really fun with a bunch more people!"

Realizing Axel was fooling around, Roxas dismissed his keyblade and considered his options. "A game, huh? Are there rules?"

Axel's laughter finally calmed, and he rubbed one of his snow-covered hands through his red hair. "Not really. It's pretty much a free-for-all."

Roxas considered the snow on the bank to his right. He scooped a bunch in his hand and held it there.

"You've got to kind of mold it together, like this." Axel scooped a handful of his own and proceeded to press it between both hands, simultaneously forming it into a sphere.

Roxas imitated the movements, until he had a firm, albeit small, snowball in his hand. He looked up at Axel, who was smiling at his creation. "So," Roxas said, "Game on." Then, he threw his snowball straight at Axel.

Axel cried out, caught off guard by Roxas's quick movement, which was exactly what the boy had wanted. He even dropped his demonstration snowball, so Roxas had ample time to make another and send it flying at Axel's chest before he was able to send one of his own flying toward Roxas.

The two play-fought for a while, using the curve in the path as battlements of sorts to protect themselves from the other's attacks. By the time it was all over, they were both covered in snow, panting and smiling hugely.

A wisp of something opaque close to Roxas's face caught his eyes, and he realized that it was timed to his heavy breathing. In fact, it appeared to be coming from his mouth. "Axel, is something wrong with me? My breath is coming out in smoke."

Their game finished, Axel walked over to where Roxas stood. "It's fine. You're seeing your breath because it's so cold. See, the same thing's happening with mine." Axel blew out a particularly large breath, and Roxas did indeed see it tangibly leave Axel's mouth and dissipate back into normal, invisible air.

"Wow," said Roxas, giving an experimental large breath of his own, straining his eyes to try and watch it form and evaporate in front of him.

Axel laughed. Roxas liked hearing Axel laugh. It seemed like those were the moments when he might've actually "felt" something, instead of just pretending. "Easy there," Axel said, "you'll go cross-eyed." Roxas blinked his vision back into focus to see Axel looking at him with some concern. "Actually, you may be getting too cold. You're shivering, Roxas." Roxas looked down at his hands, seeing they were shaking slightly. He'd been so caught up in their game, he hadn't realized that the low temperature was getting to him. He became aware that his whole body was trembling. The scarf and his gloves helped stave off some of the cold, and their cloaks were long, but they weren't made for extremely low temperatures.

"Come here," said Axel, and he reached out to pull Roxas against him, wrapping his arms around the smaller boy. Roxas held his arms between his and Axel's chests, where it was warmest. His partner gave off ample heat and, snug in Axel's embrace, Roxas immediately stopped shivering. It was like the cold wasn't there at all anymore, though he could still see the white hills and the snow-covered trees over the tops of Axel's arms. He closed his eyes and sighed contentedly. Axel stiffened slightly, and Roxas was about to ask what was wrong, but Axel just as quickly wrapped his arms around him even tighter, giving him no chance to acknowledge the minor action. Roxas let is pass, and rested his head against Axel's front.

The two stayed in that position for a few long moments. Roxas was comfortable, and he felt that Axel was, too. After a time, Axel leaned back from Roxas, moving his hands to rest on the boy's shoulders. "Better?" he asked. Roxas looked up at Axel's face and nodded. Their smiles met. Axel then said, "Come on. We'd better head back." He squeezed Roxas's shoulders before dropping his hands to his sides. Then, he moved past Roxas on the narrow path, their coats brushing him, heading back toward their origin point.

Roxas was about to fall into step behind him, but hesitated. He called, "Hey, Axel."

Axel stopped walking and turned around. "Hm?"

"Can we come back here sometime?"

"Ha, sure we can. We need to build a snowman next time."

Roxas's eyes grew wide. "A snow _man_? Does it come alive?"

Axel's laughter echoed over the snowy hills. Roxas thought it sounded like huge bells joyously ringing.


End file.
